Hello Mary Lou
by Tweeter
Summary: REPOST: I am reposting this story with something that I needed to clear up. Tony and Gibbs are in an acccident and a blizzard is approaching! COMPLETE


_Disclaimer:_ These characters don't belong to me, except for Mary Lou Freeman. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is for entertainment purposes only, no profit is being made.

Grateful hugs to my speedy beta, **Rinne**.

**CREDIT**: I was drifting off to sleep last night, thinking about writing and stuff, when it suddenly hit me that my Tony with a head injury sounds a great deal like **Sequitur's** wonderful, fantastic, hysterical story, **Found In Translation**. I think Tony would be just like that if he has a head injury. I did not mean to copy Sequitur's style, I hadn't even thought about that story as I was writing mine, even though it's one of my favorites and never fails to make me laugh. I'm not deleting this story, because I think I think Mary Lou is going to pop up in Tony's and Gibbs' life periodically. I just wanted to clear that up in case anyone thought silly Tony sounded familiar.

A/N: This is an homage to Mary Sue's. As luck would have it, purple is my favorite color, so the prose is quite plummy. Maybe a nice shade of eggplant.

My last story was rather dark. Hopefully this one will be more fun for my readers. Don't mind me, I'm just flexing my writing muscles. I like to keep you folks guessing.

Ohmigod, I hurt Tony _again_! What's wrong with me? This time Gibbs gets caught in the bloodlust.

**Hello Mary Lou**

The first thing Gibbs was aware of was the silence. It was eerily quiet. And cold. He tried to remember where he was. Wherever he was, it was quiet and cold. He shifted and was immediately sorry for the small move. He opened his eyes carefully. He was in a pile of leaves and branches; something had been driven into his side. Gibbs looked down carefully and saw a small branch sticking out of him. Well, shit.

He looked around, trying to figure out what the hell had happened, spotted the car further down the hill, upside down, wheels spinning slowly.

Suddenly it all came back to him. He and Tony were following a lead about a possible location of a murder suspect that brought them high in to the mountains. The lead had proven to be a dead end and the two were trying to get back to the city before an oncoming snowstorm hit. A deer ran out in front of them on the road, Gibbs swerved to miss it and...

Tony! Holding his side, Gibbs scrambled down the hill to the car. Smoke was starting to filter from the engine block. Sliding down to the passenger side door, he looked inside. Tony was still belted in, unconscious, blood covering the side of his face. He looked too pale. He looked... dead. Gibbs reached in carefully and felt the side of Tony's neck for a pulse. It was there, weak, but steady. Breathing a sigh of relief, Gibbs checked for any other injuries before pulling out his pocket knife and cutting the seat belt. Trying not to inflict more damage on the injured agent, Gibbs pulled Tony out of the car, dragging him a safe distance.

Anxiously, Gibbs checked his subordinate over. His head injury was bleeding severely, he also appeared to have a broken leg. Gibbs stopped and sat, trying to catch his breath. He reached for his cell phone, but it wasn't there. A search of Tony's pockets didn't find anything either. Swearing to himself, he looked around and was about to go back to the car when it blew up. Thrown back by the force of the explosion, Gibbs blacked out.

* * *

Tony wanted to know who was using his head as a taiko drum. He opened one eye carefully, then the other. He was lying on the ground, somewhere cold. And quiet. Wherever he was, it was cold and quiet. A face floated into his line of sight. The face of a woman. A beautiful woman. Well what do you know, he made it to Heaven.

"Hello," said the beautiful face. The face was framed with glorious dark brown hair that was pulled back. Dark curls broke free from the restraining scrunchie and floated against the rosy cheeks. The eyes were very large and deep blue, framed by the longest lashes he had ever, except for the camel at the zoo that he went to as a child with one of his nannies. The lips weren't like camel's lips, however. These lips were full, red and moving... oh, the face was talking.

"Can you hear me?"

"Um. Yeah." Tony tried to move, but his head started spinning and the taiko drummer started tap dancing.

"Don't move. I think you have a concussion," said the face.

"Okay."

"Is he awake?" That wasn't the face. That voice was familiar. It sounded like...

"Boss?"

"Lie still Tony." Gibbs' face swam into view, displacing the other. Tony frowned. He liked the other face. It was pretty. It smelled good too.

The other face came back and smiled at him.

"I'm Mary Lou Freeman." The face had a name.

"Well, hello, Mary Lou," sang Tony.

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Definitely a concussion."

Mary Lou just looked at Tony. "Yeah, like I haven't heard that before."

"Give me a break," Tony protested. "I've got a head injury. I'm not at my best."

Mary Lou turned a serious face toward Gibbs. "We've got to get back to my cabin. The storm's coming and you two are not going to last long out in the cold, not with your injuries."

Gibbs nodded. "We'll have to figure out a way to carry Tony out of here."

Mary Lou pulled a hatchet out of her backpack. "You can't carry anyone, anywhere, not with your side like that. You'll start bleeding again. We'll make a travois. I'll chop a couple of large branches, we'll lash a blanket between them," she pulled said item out of her pack, "and then drag Tony back to the cabin."

"Do you have a coat rack in there?" Tony called out weakly.

Gibbs and Mary Lou turned and looked at Tony blankly.

"You know, in your pack. Like Mary Poppins' bag? Come on, I know I'm not firing on all cylinders, but that was funny." Tony closed his eyes and started muttering to himself. His head really hurt. And so did his leg. Why hadn't he noticed that before?

Making short work of the chopping, Mary Lou dragged two large branches over to the two agents. She and Gibbs lashed the blanket across the two branches and maneuvered Tony onto the blanket. Together they dragged the injured agent to a small cabin, set deep in the woods, near a creek.

It was starting to snow when the three made it to the cabin. It was cozy, one large room separated into distinct living spaces by placement of furniture only. There was a small stove and table with two chairs, indicating the eating area. An overstuffed sofa sat in front of a huge fireplace. A large bed, flanked by a nightstand and dresser was in another part of the room. _A/N: Why would there be a large bed in a small cabin? This is my freakin' Mary Sue, go write your own. And get your minds out of the gutter, this isn't rated M._

"Make yourself at home," Mary Lou said. "I'll go bring in some more wood. We're going to need it."

"Do you have a phone?" Gibbs said.

"Nope," replied the woman cheerfully, as she left the cabin. "Kinda defeats the purpose of 'getting away from it all'."

Gibbs stared after her, aghast.

"She's pretty." Gibbs turned to look at Tony. The younger agent's eyes were glazed, pupils slightly dilated.

Sighing, Gibbs sat on the sofa. They were going to have to ride out the storm before they could try to get Tony some medical help. He wondered if Mary Lou had some sort of vehicle. She had to have one, she couldn't have hiked here from the city. Could she?

"Whatcha thinkin' Boss?" Tony sounded drunk, that wasn't a good sign.

Gibbs was about to answer when Mary Lou returned, snow blowing in with her through the open door.

"Whoo!" she huffed. "Snow's really coming down now. Reports say we'll get about a foot out here."

"Reports?" Gibbs looked hopeful. "Do you have a two-way radio?"

"Plain old one-way radio, sorry."

"We need to get help for Tony," Gibbs exclaimed, exasperated. "He has a concussion, maybe even a skull fracture. His leg has to be set, he may need to have pins put in it."

"We can't do anything until the storm passes," Mary Lou replied calmly. "We'll have to keep him awake and stable. _You_ need to let me clean out that wound on your side before it gets infected. Let's move Tony closer to the fire." Together, they helped Tony onto the sofa; Mary Lou pulled an afghan over him. She put one pillow under his head and propped his injured leg with another.

"Sit." She pointed to a chair by the fireplace, giving Gibbs an order with a remarkable amount of authority.

"Speak," mumbled Tony. "Roll over."

"Where'd you learn to be so bossy?" Gibbs asked, sitting as ordered.

"I'm a military brat and I have four brothers. My mother and I learned to fight for what we wanted. Dad was a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marines."

"So was Gibbs," Tony exclaimed. "Who'd a thunk it, Boss?"

Mary Lou grinned at Gibbs. "You're a Gunny?"

"Yes, ma'am." He smiled at the young woman. She really _is _pretty.

"I thought there was something I liked about you," Mary Lou said, laughing as she gathered together the first aid items.

"What about me?" Tony asked, his voice bordering on a whine.

"I like you too, Tony." He smiled at that. "Despite your sense of humor."

"Hmmmph," sniffed Tony, "wait until I'm feeling better. You'll never know what hit you."

"Mmm hmmm." Mary Lou set a bowl of hot water next to Gibbs. "Take your shirt off, please."

Wincing with the movement, Gibbs carefully removed his shirt to expose the remainder of the branch lodged in his side. "I broke most of it off," he explained when he saw her raised eyebrow. "You'll need to get the rest of it out."

"Yeah, I will. It would have helped if you'd left me something to grab hold of."

Kneeling down, Mary Lou took a closer look at the injury. It looked ugly. She couldn't tell how much of the branch was embedded in the flesh. If she pulled it out and nicked a blood vessel, Gibbs could bleed to death. If she left it in and the wound got infected, he could die before they got him to a hospital. This was not a good position to be in.

Sitting back, she looked up into Gibbs' eyes. His beautiful eyes. Shaking her head mentally, she said, "I don't know if I should pull it out and risk bleeding, or leave it in and risk infection. Since you're the one taking the risk, you decide."

"Stay awake, DiNozzo," Gibbs barked, causing the younger agent to jump, mumbling, "I'm up, I'm up."

"Better take it out, it hurts like hell right now and you can always cauterize the wound if it bleeds too much."

Nodding, Mary Lou replied, "I agree." Walking over to a cabinet, she pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and handed it to Gibbs. "You might want to drink some of this."

Grinning at her, Gibbs accepted the bottle, opened it and took a big swig, wincing as the liquid burned a path down his throat. He took a few more swigs until Mary Lou was ready to pull the branch out.

"Did you give him a bullet to bite on?" Tony's eyes were still glazed, and he showed great interest in the proceedings. Gibbs was too mellow to swat the other agent, plus Tony had a brain... no a head... something. Gritting his teeth, he gave Mary Lou the go-ahead signal.

Holding her breath, she clamped the tip of the stick with a pair of pliers and pulled, clamping a clean cloth on top of the wound immediately and pressing down firmly. Gibbs let out a short roar, then sat, taking shallow breaths, perspiration dotting his face.

"You okay, Boss?" Tony peered over at him, worriedly.

"I'm fine, DiNozzo."

"Can you hold this for a minute?" Gibbs took over holding the clean cloth over his wound while Mary Lou grabbed another blanket and threw it over his shivering form.

"You should lie down, Boss." Tony struggled to get up.

"Get down, DiNozzo!" Mary Lou winced at the volume of the command.

"Ow," she said.

"Sorry."

"He's right, though, you should lie down, but you need to be near the fire. Hold this again."

Mary Lou pulled the mattress, sheets, blankets and pillows and all off the bedframe and dragged it in front of the fire. She switched the bloody cloth for a fresh one and carefully wound some bandaging around Gibbs' torso. Helping him put his shirt back on, Mary Lou guided him over to the mattress and helped him get settled.

"It's like a sleepover," giggled Tony.

"More like camping out, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled in reply.

Tony sighed. "I never got to do that either," he said wistfully. "No one wanted a kid in a sailor suit sleeping over at their house. I got beat up a lot."

Gibbs looked over at his agent in surprise. "I'm sorry, Tony, that's really sad."

"Explains a lot, doesn't it, Boss." Gibbs could see shame starting to rear its ugly head. He had to nip that in the bud.

"Tony, the only thing that explains is the reason why you can charm the pants off a nun," he replied. "With the bits and pieces you let drop about your childhood, I'm surprised you turned out to be as good a man as you are."

"I am?" Tony's eyes started to mist over.

"You are," Gibbs affirmed. "Don't cry, you pansy."

Mary Lou and Tony looked at Gibbs in shock, then burst out laughing.

Outside the storm raged, the wind and snow rattling the windows. Inside the fire was warm, the company was good, and Tony kept them entertained with Stan Rogers folk ballads.

**The End**... _or is it?_


End file.
